Sun2Retire said:This in the IRS instructions seems to unequivocally exclude part-timers:
"Who Can Take the Credits
Main home. Your main home is generally the home where you live most of the time."
Sun2Retire said:This in the IRS instructions seems to unequivocally exclude part-timers:
"Who Can Take the Credits
Main home. Your main home is generally the home where you live most of the time."
sadixon49 said:The OP clearly states he is fulltiming. That tells me the RV is his primary residence, and should be allowed the solar energy credits.
Drifterrider said:If your RV qualifies as a home for mortgage interest deduction, why wouldn't it also qualify for energy credits?
Gary RVer Emeritus said:One can quibble about the definition of a "mortgage", but I'll leave that to the lawyers. Regardless of the definition, the interest on an RV loan is deductible on federal incomes taxes as long as the RV itself is the collateral for the loan and you don't take the interest deduction for more than one other home (there is a limit of two "homes' for the interest deduction).
The Energy Credit has different rules than the interest deduction, so the fact that interest is deductible doesn't really mean anything. An RV does qualify as a residence, but the "main" or primary home clause of the energy Credit is relevant to RVs. Part time RVers can conceivably qualify if they don't have any other residence that is more of a "main home" than the RV, but that can get highly subjective. For practical purposes, the RV has to be the full time or "most time" home.
You appear knowledgeable about the details about loans. Would you provide what specific loan details which defines a mortgage versus a bank loan on mobile home or a RV? Especially if both of them come from a bank.ArdraF said:I think the answer is that they're both loans but of different types. You can get a loan on many things, including motorhomes, mobile homes, trucks, cars and the like, but you can only get the mortgage type of loan on a stick and brick home. I've heard a lot of people refer to the motorhome loans as a "mortgage" but it's really just a bank loan.
ArdraF
Home.
A home is where you lived in 2016 and can include a house, houseboat, mobile home, cooperative apartment, condominium, and a manufactured home that conforms to Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards
Main home.
Your main home is generally the home where you live most of the time. A temporary absence due to special circumstances, such as illness, education, business, military service, or vacation, won't change your main home.
Residential Energy Efficient Property
Credit (Part I)
If you made energy saving improvements to more than one
home that you used as a residence during 2016, enter the total
of those costs on the applicable line(s) of one Form 5695. For
qualified fuel cell property, see Lines 7a and 7b, later.
You may be able to take a credit of 30% of your costs of
qualified solar electric property, solar water heating property,
small wind energy property, geothermal heat pump property,
and fuel cell property. Include any labor costs properly allocable
to the onsite preparation, assembly, or original installation of the
residential energy efficient property and for piping or wiring to
interconnect such property to the home. The credit amount for
costs paid for qualified fuel cell property is limited to $500 for
each one-half kilowatt of capacity of the property.
Qualified solar electric property costs. Qualified solar
electric property costs are costs for property that uses solar
energy to generate electricity for use in your home located in the
United States. No costs relating to a solar panel or other
property installed as a roof (or portion thereof) will fail to qualify
solely because the property constitutes a structural component
of the structure on which it is installed. The home doesn't have to
be your main home.